A Cuban Brain Drain Problem?

Last month, The Wall Street Journal ran a story on the increased numbers of Cubans entering the U.S. at the Mexico border. Some 22,000 Cubans arrived in this manner, more than double the number from the prior year.

Immigration attorney Jodi Goodwin characterized the majority of these new arrivals as being “economic migrants.” But that isn’t to say the newly-arriving Cubans are low-skilled. Indeed, the family featured in the WSJ piece included a doctor and a preschool teacher.

Today, the New York Times Editorial Board ran an editorial that pairs nicely with the WSJ piece: A Cuban Brain Drain, Courtesy of the U.S. The board argues that U.S. praise of Cuban doctors fighting against Ebola in Africa is “incongruous” given that the U.S. Cuban Medical Professional Parole Program provides a means for Cuban medical professionals “conscripted” to work overseas to be paroled into the United States. That is, it provides them a lawful means for entering and staying in the U.S.

The Editorial Board writes:

The Cuban government has long regarded the medical defection program as a symbol of American duplicity. It undermines Cuba’s ability to respond to humanitarian crises and does nothing to make the government in Havana more open or democratic. As long as this incoherent policy is in place, establishing a healthier relationship between the two nations will be harder.

Many medical professionals, like a growing number of Cubans, will continue to want to move to the United States in search of new opportunities, and they have every right to do so. But inviting them to defect while on overseas tours is going too far.

 -KitJ